Icelanders don’t really believe in elves. It’s just a silly myth. That said, we don’t mess with them either. Perhaps, for some, this might sound like a contradiction, but in Iceland, we know that only an idiot trifles with the things he doesn’t understand. In fact, Icelanders respect elves—which, again, we absolutely don’t believe in— so much that oftentimes, the road systems have been completely altered for their benefit. Here is one of many examples. Not that it matters of course. Elves don’t exist.
Don’t f”#$ with the elves
Hegranes is an area in Skagafjörður, in the North of Iceland. There lies the road Sauðárkróksbraut, or route 75, which meanders through an outcrop called Tröllaskarð—“Troll’s Pass” in English.
In the 70s, construction workers were busy laying the road, when a medium called and told them that whatever they did, they could not bomb the cliffs, as this would anger the elves. Unfortunately, for both the psychic and the elves—not that they exist—the builders needed to do so in order to make progress on the road.
Mysterious malfunctioning
This medium turned out to be Hafsteinn Björnsson, who, at the time, was a psychic superstar in Iceland. What made the phone call even more odd was the fact that the road construction was not widely known about nor considered controversial… so, how did Hafsteinn know about it? Shortly after Hafsteinn’s warning, another medium contacted the Icelandic road administration—that’s when shit got serious.
As the construction continued near Tröllaskarð, bulldozers began to malfunction in mysterious ways. This was obviously due to the elves (who don’t exist) and these spooky setbacks, combined with the medium’s warnings, made the contractors decide to halt their work on the pass and completely change the route of the road. Best not anger the obviously not real supernatural creatures, of course.
Safest road in the country
As a result, Sauðárkróksbraut is quite odd. But the elves, which we 100% do not believe in, are thought to protect the strange road in gratitude for our consideration. There has never been an incident recorded on the road (according to the source from 2016), making it one of Iceland’s safest one. Of course, this has nothing to do with elves either. We are just excellent drivers.
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